I shake my head.

No. He’s Rocky. He’s smart. He’d have backup plans. A separate life-support system that he sleeps in, I bet. And he’d account for radiation—it killed his entire crew.

But why no response?

He can’t see. He doesn’t have windows. He’d have to actively look outside with the Blip-A’s sensory equipment to know I’m there at all. Why would he do that? He thinks he’s hopelessly derelict in space.

EVA time.

I climb into the Orlan for what seems like the millionth time and cycle through the airlock. I have a nice long tether anchored to the airlock interior itself.

I look out into the vast nothingness before me. I can’t see the Blip-A. Tau Ceti is too far away to light things up. I only know where the ship is because it blocks the background stars. I’m just… out in space and a big chunk of it has no pinpricks of light.

There’s no good way to do this. I’m just going to have to take a guess. I kick off the Hail Mary’s hull as hard as I can, aiming for the Blip-A. It’s a big ship. I just have to hit any part of it. And hey, if I miss, the tether will bounce me back in the galaxy’s first interstellar bungee jump.

I float across space. The blackness ahead of me grows. More and more stars disappear until I see nothing. I don’t even have a sense of movement. I know logically I must have the same velocity as when I kicked off my ship. But there’s nothing to prove it.

Then, I spot a faint blotchy tan glow ahead. I’m finally close enough to the Blip-A that my helmet lights are illuminating part of it. It gets brighter and brighter. I can see the hull more clearly now.

It’s go time. I have just seconds to find something to grab on to. I know his hull has rails all over the place for that robot to get around. I’m hoping I’ll be close enough to one to grab.

I spot a rail dead ahead. I reach out.

Slam!

I hit the Blip-A much harder than an EVA suit should. I shouldn’t have kicked off the Hail Mary with so much gusto. I scrabble at the hull, grabbing for anything. My plan to grab a rail failed miserably, I got a hand on one but just couldn’t keep a grip. I bounce and start drifting away. The tether gets tangled up behind and around me. It’ll be a long climb back to my ship for another try.

Then I spot a weird, jagged protuberance on the hull a few meters away. An antenna, maybe? It’s too far to reach with my hands, but maybe I can get it with the tether.

I’m drifting away from the hull at a slow but steady rate and I don’t have a jetpack. It’s now or never.

I tie a quick slipknot in the tether and throw it at the antenna.